The invention disclosed herein relates to disposable absorbent articles, particularly pads for absorbing menses or urine, and more particularly pads for providing improved contact with the perineal region of the body.
Absorbent articles such as sanitary napkins, panty liners, and incontinence pads are designed to absorb and retain fluid discharges from the human body. It is desirable that such absorbent articles, maintain contact with the body of the wearer when they are worn. It is even more desirable that absorbent articles conform as closely as possible to the body contours of the wearer. A body-conforming characteristic can increase the effectiveness of the absorbent article by reducing the possibility that fluids such as menses or urine will leak past the perimeter of the absorbent article.
Under dynamic conditions, such as during the normal movement by the wearer, maintaining an absorbent garment such as a sanitary napkin against the body of the wearer is difficult because there are forces which reduce the absorbent garment's ability to stay in contact with the body of the wearer. First, there are the forces associated with attachment of the absorbent garment to the wearer's clothes. Second, there are the forces associated with body movement, in particular, thigh movement.
Absorbent articles such as sanitary napkins are typically fastened to the wearer's undergarment by a pressure sensitive adhesive or other means. The means is stressed when the wearer moves about because the wearer's undergarments may not move in concert with the body of the wearer. Likely, the absorbent article will pull away from the body or may become detached from the undergarment. This can cause the sanitary napkin to shift from the desired position and registration with the wearer's vaginal opening.
As soon as the sanitary napkin is put on, for instance, the sanitary napkin is subjected to lateral compression by the upper portions of the wearer's thighs. The forces applied by the wearer's thighs generally tend to distort the shape of the sanitary napkin, reducing the material surface available for absorbing bodily fluid.
Movement of the product with respect to the wearer's body during use is especially unsuitable and undesirable in connection with those products which have been given a special shape in order to better conform the anatomy of the wearer, or in which the absorption capacity has been optimized with the requirement that the main part of the body fluid which is to be absorbed impinges on the product within a limited predetermined region of the product.
It is, therefore, desirable to provide body-conforming, fluid-absorbing, absorbent articles with a mechanism to accommodate the independence of movement between the body of the wearer and the wearer's undergarments.